Zach Brenner's Arc

Chapter 17 of 86

The claws had raked Zach twice, and steel did nothing. He and his two companions were cornered against the tower wall. Raven pressed to his side, cat ears flat, crossbow steady. Lyra stood on his other flank, the elf mage the guild had sent to guide them here. Malachar was gone. If they died in this chamber, so did their only lead to where the sorcerer fled and what he planned to raise. Zach had to end this fight to keep the trail alive. Fire hadn't worked. Steel hadn't worked. But nothing had frozen these things yet. "Lyra, can you cast a spell on my sword?" Zach shouted. Lyra looked at him. "Of course. How about ice blade?" She swept her hand across the enchanted steel. Frost crawled up the metal. She flung the same cold at the demons. The blast struck three of them. Their black skin cracked with rime. They stopped mid-lunge, locked stiff for a few seconds. "Now, Raven!" Zach yelled. Raven fired. Explosive bolts hit the frozen creatures square. Two shattered into black shards that hissed on the floor. The third staggered, half its body split open. A fourth demon broke free of the ice and lunged. It clawed Zach across the side. He felt warm blood soak his shirt. He gasped but held his feet. Behind him a demon seized Raven and threw her against the wall. She hit hard and dropped. The last one rushed Lyra. Her hands shook, nearly spent. Zach saw it and moved. He dropped his frost-coated sword, jumped, and drove his shoulder into the demon. He pinned it flat under his weight. Its claws tore at his arms. "Lyra, freeze it!" he grunted. Lyra pressed both palms to the thing's chest. Ice spread through its body. Zach rolled clear. Raven pushed up from the floor, raised the crossbow, and fired her last bolt. The frozen demon burst apart. The chamber went quiet. Black shards steamed on the stone. Zach sat back, both arms bleeding, his side torn open. Raven crossed to him, limping. She knelt and gripped his hand. "I owe you a kiss," she said. "Later," Zach said, breathing hard. "We got them. But Malachar's still gone." Lyra knelt by the wall where the demons had stood. Something lay in the black dust. She lifted it. A folded scrap of parchment, singed at one edge. "One of them dropped this," she said. She opened it. Marks covered the page, drawn in dark red. "It's a name. And a place. He wrote where he's going." Zach took the parchment. He couldn't read the marks, but Lyra could. The sorcerer had vanished without a word. Now the trail was in Zach's hand. "Read it to me," he said. "We follow him. Wherever he means to raise this thing, we get there first."